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THE ILLINOIS FA.R1MEII. 



365 



pint of distilled water. Use it with a sponge 

 two or three times a day. A still simpler 

 composition is a quarter of a drachm of bo- 

 rax, half a drachm of sugar, and one ounce 



of lemon juice. Mix and let it stand for a 



few days, and then rub it on occasionally. 



•• 



How a Chick is Hatched. 



In conversation with Judge Butler, of 

 Norwulk, a few days since, he explained 

 the operation of the hatching process, 

 which is so beautiful and philosophical, 

 that as we have never seen it explained 

 in books, we repeat it to our readers. 



The chick within the egg breathes 

 through the shell; in the silky mem- 

 brane lining of the shell the blood circu- 

 lates, and is thus brought in contact 

 with outer air. 



The head of the chick is in a position 

 as if it had been brought round under 

 the wing and over on the back — a little 

 one side of course — in such a position 

 that the least muscular exertion will 

 press the beak against the shell, and 

 about in the middle, and when any vio- 

 lent struggle is made, it will break a 

 little hole in the shell. Now this little 

 movement of the head, perhapa an 

 eighth of an inch forward, turns the 

 chick in the shell so that when the head 

 is drawn back into its normal position, 

 it is brought against another portion of 

 the shell. The next struggle breaks a 

 a fresh hole, and so on, each struggle 

 making a new opening in the shell. 



These struggles, as the chick gains 

 strength from breathing the fresh air, 

 become more frequent. Finally, in the 

 course of half a day perhaps, as it 

 goes on turning itself in its shell, 

 the little blood vessels which originally 

 formed a connection between the chick 

 and the lining membrane of the shell, 

 are drawn so tight as to prevent circula- 

 tion, or are twisted off, ard when holes 

 have been punctured and the shell crack- 

 ed about two-thirds around, the shell falls 

 apart and the young chanticleer steps 

 ont into a new world. 



Occasionally the lining membrane of 

 the egg is so tough that the shell parts 

 from it, and leaves it unbroken, except 

 in the little holes described, and so if 

 not seen in time the chick dies; a pair of 

 scissors will effect a liberation. 



It is dangerous to attempt to take a 

 chick from the egg before it has, as will 

 be evinced by the cracked shell, turned 

 itself nearly or quite two- thirds round; < 

 otherwise the blood vessels spoken of 

 will be broken, and the chick either 

 bleed to death or be long in recovering. 

 The whole process may be watched if 

 the egg be kept warm in the hand, and 

 observed as its struggles call attention 

 to it. This will not interfere with read- 

 ing or writing, and is instructive and in- 

 teresting. — Homestead. 



To Cook 



till very tender; cut them in cross 

 pieces, put them in a sauce-pan with a 

 teacup of cream, a small piece of butter, 



salt and a little cayenne pepper, and 

 send to the table hot. 



—>- 



Carrots. — Boil carrots 



lice on Fowls. 

 A subscriber wishes to be informed how to 

 exterminate the vermin that frequently in- 

 fect hens and hen roosts, and &c. Preven- 

 tion when practicable is always better than 

 cure. Strict cleanliness about the roosts and 

 nests, will always prevent hens from becom- 

 ing lousy. The droppings under the hens 

 should be removed frequently, the nests of- 

 ten renewed, and air-slacked lime and ashes 

 scattered around the floors and roosts. Boxes 

 of dry ashes and lime sheuld always be kept 

 under or over where the fowls can have con- 

 stant access to them, that they may wallow 



in at pleasure. With these precautions 



fowls that are free from vermin will never be 

 infested. But where they have become 

 lojsy the roosts should he thoroughly swept 

 and cleaned, the straw and litter from the 

 nests entirely Removed, and the wood work 

 and roost poles of the house whitewashed 

 with fresh slacked lime, into which a quan- 

 tity of sulphur or tobacco has been mixed. 

 A day or two before this operation the fowls 

 should be fed with coarse cornmeal wet with 

 milk or water into which a quantity of sul- 

 phur has been mixed. Feed with this sev- 

 eral days, it may then be omitted for a few 

 days, and repeated again at intervals of three 

 or four drys, and continued in this way until 

 all the nits have hatched, when the insects 

 will drop off and leave the fowls. Thorough 

 cleanliness after this will generally extermi- 

 nate them. Fowls are always poor and un- 

 thrifty, and setting hens are seldom success- 

 ful in hatching their eggs when annoyed with 

 vermin ; a little care is all that is necessary 

 to prevent it. 



«» 



The best Mode of Preserving Eggs 

 — Remarkable Preservation of Vi- 

 tality IN Eggs. — The most simple and 

 successful method of preserving eggs for 

 fall and winter use is to employ a pint 

 of lime and a pint of salt, mixed with 

 a bucket of water, and after packing the 

 eggs in ajar or keg, with the small end 

 downwards, in successive layers, then 

 carefully turn in the mixture until the 

 eggs are covered. 



In our travels in Kentucky we stop- 

 ped at a place where probably the larg- 

 est number of fowls are kept in the 

 State, and we were shown some small 

 chickens that were hatched from eggs 

 that were packed in August (1858,) 

 and preserved according to the above 

 directions. Six of the eggs thus pre- 

 served were marked and placed under a 

 hen, together with eight fresh laid ones. 

 Every egg but one hatched, which was 

 one of the marked ones. The fact was 

 so remarkable that it led to doubts in 

 the minds of some of the family, wheth- 

 er there must not have been some mis- 

 take in the matter, when the female, who 

 had the chickens in charge, and who had 



raised the present season about one 

 thousand, repeated the trial, taking 

 eight eggs from the same keg near the 

 lower tier, and placed them under a hen 

 with no other eggs : in due time five of 

 these eggs hatched out strong and heal- 

 thy chickens ; a sixth egg was thrown 

 out of the nest and was broken, when it 

 was discovered that it contained a live 

 chick. Thus it will be seen that eggs 

 by this method can not only be preserv- 

 ed from eight to nine months perfectlj 

 fresh, but that the living principle can 

 be retained and the eggs Latched. These 

 eggs were put into a keg or half barrel 

 and headed up so as to be nearly or quite 

 air tight, and then placed in a cool cellar, 

 where they remained all winter. The 

 fresh, natural appearance of the eggs, 

 when broken to be cooked, le-l to the 

 idea of testing their vitalitj bj an effort 



to hatch them. 



." ■ ■ — «•*— 



. ' Tbe Market for Grain. 



The United States Economist has a very in- 

 teresting article under the abuve beading, from 

 which we extract the following : 



The return to high duties on grain in France 

 has beeo regarded as an abnegation ot the free 

 trade system that the Emperor was eupposed 

 to favor The Corn lawa were euspended in 

 1849, and during ten years the trade bae beea 

 comparatively free, but the crops have nut been 

 good. Last winter, after the crops of 1858 had 

 beeti ascertained to be aburidaot, the Emperor 

 resolved on the Italian campaign, and as the 

 protectiotiiscs had clamored f i r a restoration of 

 duties, and it was important to conciiiaie all 

 parties on the eve of a war, the duties were 

 restored, but this time— when the orupe are 

 good — they are virtually inoperative. The 

 duties, however, are bjth import and export. — 

 'ibe frontier departments are divided into four 

 classes, wliich are, in turn, for commerce, divi- 

 ded into sections, and every gectioo has certain 

 towns, designated 88 regulating markets. In 

 all thi se markets the autfa rities publish moDth- 

 Ij the average price of every kind of grain, 

 and the duty, b>>(h fur ex., ortation and import 

 tation, is proportioned to this average, with the 

 fixed purpose of preventing expjrtation, except 

 when grain is plenty, and shutting out imports 

 except whan it is scarce, the export duty rifiing 

 faster than the price of gram, and the import 

 duty rising as grain declines. The effect has 

 been to stjp the milling trade in the Northern 

 departments whence flturwas sent to England 

 in competition with American fluur. 



The superior nkill, or other causes, enabled 

 the French millers to take ordinary qualities of 

 English Wheat, and produce a superior Flour, 

 that found a large marke in England. Thii 

 trade will now pr>b:ibly underj^o some modifi- 

 cition The result of the harvest in Great 

 Britain this year is that the quantity in Eng- 

 land. Scotland ard Wales is a full averag'e. — 

 The yield in France is said to be less than ]a^t 

 season. Germany and Russia have fair aver- 

 aire cmps. The question then is, what will 

 England want? To solve this question, we 

 have only to compare what she has required 

 for the last few years as shown by official re- 

 ports. 



HIPOETS INTO GRXAT BRnAra. 



Other Total 



Wheat. Floor. grain. all grain. 



Qra. Cwt. Qrs Qrg. 



4.915,430 4,621.586 3 937,275 10 173,136 



-3 431-2a7 3 646 605 3,43 ,46a 7.»00,£44 



.2.667.702 1,904,224 3,067.047 6.278,313 



4.073.833 3.970.100 4,132.78 9,3;J9 428 



.3.437.957 2,178148 6,108 895 9.16U.1K9 



18^8 4.41.119 3,8..6..27 6,877,702 11.27'i 262 



1859-7 mon«b8...2,580,681 2,623,091 .......„.„.; 



In the fiice of tailing prices in England, thg 



18.53....... 



1804 



1855 



1X56 



1867 



